West of the main continent lies the Turtleback Isles. Many smaller islands bound together in their worship to the god Ceaptine.
These blossom filled lands are home to many, but most known throughout the other lands are the samurai clans. They are small clans, 5 to 15 individuals at most (and that is including beast companions). Members of such a clan are close together, where one goes so go the others. The bond that they share is something special.
When one samurai falls, he or she does not depart, but stay with the rest of the clan in the form of a wisp. A small mote of energy that floats with the clan. The more wisp a clan has, the more they are respected in the Turtleback isles for the sacrifices they have made.

The wisp will stay with the clan until the last samurai falls, then they all part together from the realm of the living.
In dire times the wisps are known to manifest themselves in the form of their old body for a short time. Others mention the wisp imbuing a weapon, giving it one phantom strike that can ignore any armor or spellshield. But something like that comes at a price the clan would not pay unless dire. The depleted wisp vanishes from the mortal realm into the void. The wisp, now lost in the infinite void has to find their way back to the clan. Some manage to get back after a day, some were gone for years. When the last (living) member of a clan falls while there is still a wisp left in the void, that wisp loses it's connection to the mortal realm. Without this guiding connection the wisp is unable to find it's way out of the void and is lost forever. A price the clan, being so close together in life and beyond, will not take lightly.